What Went Down During The May 17 Primary Elections

Yeah, Sarah, Hines in North Carolina’s 13th and Oz and McCormick in Pennsylvania’s Senate race come to mind. It will be a really good test of whether voters care about local ties and a candidate’s personal profile or whether they are just following the cues of elites like Trump (or being persuaded by millions of dollars in TV ads). If the latter, it’s another piece of evidence that U.S. politics — even primaries! — has become increasingly nationalized. Sorry, Tip O’Neill.

Earlier tonight, I asked you all about whether celebrity candidates or inexperienced politicians were the next big thing, but maybe what I really should have asked about is carpetbagging politicians — those running in states or districts where they haven’t lived for a long time. We’ve got a lot of candidates that fit this bill tonight, no?

We’re up to 26 percent of the expected vote reporting now in Pennsylvania’s Republican primary for governor, and Mastriano has taken the lead as more rural counties (and perhaps election day votes, though it’s hard to tell) have reported. Ironically, Mastriano railed against Biden’s come-from-behind win in Pennsylvania in 2020, yet Mastriano looks like he is charting the same path to victory tonight.

Latest count in Pennsylvania’s GOP primary for governor

Results of Pennsylvania’s Republican primary for governor, as of 9:06 p.m. Eastern

Candidate	Votes	Vote %
Doug Mastriano	31,749	28.6
Bill McSwain	22,088	19.9
Lou Barletta	21,964	19.8
Dave White	12,879	11.6
Melissa Hart	9,481	8.5
Jake Corman	4,567	4.1
Joe Gale	3,630	3.3
Nche Zama	2,489	2.2
Charlie Gerow	2,062	1.9